Dev Log – Milestone: Timekeeper of Worlds – Unified Simulation Time and Ticking Live

May 20, 2025

Time is the invisible current that moves every system forward—and as of this week, time itself is live.

With the integration of the TimeManager and TickManager, Colonies: Genesis of E.D.E.N. has taken a fundamental leap. This isn’t just a feature—this is the simulation’s heartbeat.

For the first time, all planetary systems now advance in harmony. Time flows consistently. Ticks execute predictably. Simulation no longer happens in isolation—it pulses with rhythm and meaning.

What Came Online

TimeManager

• Maintains global simulation time
• Tracks tick count, calendar progression, and wall-time diagnostics
• Provides warp speed and pause/resume control
• Lays the foundation for calendar-based events, seasons, and historical playback

TickManager

• Coordinates all registered simulation systems
• Supports tick groups, priorities, and offsets for performance and control
• Ensures deterministic updates in the correct order

Together, they form a temporal spine—a structured clockwork engine for everything from weather to population simulation.

Systems Now Ticking Together

Two flagship systems were immediately connected to this temporal backbone:

1. Ptolemaic Illumination System

• Calculates the sun’s angle based on time of day and axial tilt
• Updates solar irradiance on a per-tile basis every tick
• Provides realistic day/night and seasonal lighting across the planet

Without time, the sun would stand still. With it, light now moves—and every tile responds in kind.

2. Geodesic Weather System

• Reads irradiance, updates surface temperature
• Calculates evaporation, wind transport, cloud formation, and rainfall
• Fully responds to both local environmental state and global time

Now, weather doesn’t just happen—it evolves. Clouds build through the day and dissolve overnight. Rain moves with wind. Every tick advances the living sky.

Why This Matters

This is the moment when the simulation stopped being a set of isolated mechanics—and became a world.

Time gives meaning to change. A planet without time has no rotation, no weather, no growth, no decay. With time, every variable becomes a story—temperature trends, droughts, monsoons, migrations, generations.

This milestone transforms the architecture from a sandbox to a simulation. It’s no longer about static values—it’s about progression. Every tick is a heartbeat. Every second, a choice.

And this is only the beginning. The same framework will soon manage:

• Population behavior
• Biological growth cycles
• Resource aging
• Governance turns
• Event scheduling
• And eventually orbital dynamics

The world now moves. And soon, it will remember.